Swashbuckler
From EQ2-Daily.com EQ2 Wiki
| The Swashbuckler class is part of the Scout archetype. Rogues (swashbucklers and brigands) generate high amounts of sustained damage during a fight and have many utility skills to make the group function better. |
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Overview
Traditional Races: High Elf, Half Elf, Wood Elf, Kerra, Human, Halfing, Froglock, Dark Elf(must betray), Barbarian, Gnome, Ratonga(must betray), Iksar(must betray)
Swashbucklers can use Bows, but all their abilities are geared towards throwing weapons. Most Swashbucklers use Dual Wields - when you get to level 50, Inspired Daring ability usually means you want 1.2 second dual wield weapons to maximize this ability.
Main difference over Brigand (evil): Slightly more Area Effect damage and trades some mitigation debuffs for DPS/Attack skill debuffs.
Skills
Swashbucklers are a jack of all trades. They have a little of this and a little of that. They do not have an UBER attack that does 10,000 damage in one hit but that doesn't mean they can't dish out the damage: Top Swashbucklers at level 70 have been known to dish out over 2,000 damage per second (DPS) in excess of 60,000 damage in a single 30 second fight. They have some neat abilities which can easily pull a group out of major danger or turn the tide of a battle.
Swashies have 2 debuffing abilities (outside of Combat Abilities (CA)): Reduce Wisdom / Defense and Reduce Mental / Divine Mitigation. They also have tons of debuffs which work with their attacks (reduce DPS, agility, parrying, etc), but they all require successful attacks. The nice thing about the two debuffs is that they are almost never resisted and can work against Red mobs.
Combat
As a soloist they are quite good and can take down yellow mobs quite effectively with solid tactics. The best bet is to stun as much as you can (invising behind the mob and using the invis stun attack is a great start - if they see invis try using your mez to get behind them). Remember to use cheap shot frequently as you can use it to get behind your foe and backstab them - also don't forget your stunning AE attack as it still does a stun (though it is slow). The basic thing here is that you can't survive trading hits with mobs, you have to take them down fast fast fast.
In a group, swashies are typically a damage dealer (though they can be a poor man's tank with their one taunt ability (usually they taunt well enough with damage though). Typically they attack from behind (as one swashbuckler once said to me: "I know the backside of every mob in the game") and use their hate controlling abilities to dish out huge amounts of damage while not gaining very much aggro (remember to use your distraction ability to transfer hate to the main tank and to lower your hate when you are in trouble).
Combat Strategy - Soloing Solo Heroics
Here's a neat high level strategy for swashbucklers (yes it works for other classes too). If you are trying to solo something that will completely kick your butt if you do it head to head - try this strategy:
1. Sneak up on your Heroic (if not see Invis).
2. Use Brazening (Stunning backstab)
3. Use Guile (backstab which reduces physical mit)
4. Use Plunder (big damage backstab)
5. Use Lung Puncture (defensive debuff backstab)
6. Cast Cheapshot
7. Use Whirl of Blades (Triple attack)
8. Use Flurry of Blades (Double attack)
9. Cast Disarming Grin (Mez) (turn off your auto-attack while casting to not break the mez. don't use a poison DOT as this will also break the mez).
10. Go into Sneak, get behind the mob.
11. Wait until there is 2 seconds left on your Mez.
12. Go to Step 2.
If the Heroic is See Invis - Pull with Chilling Throw (Snaring Throw attack) and Mez the Heroic as soon as it is in range.
With this technique I have been able to solo very high level heroics. Use a Power Stealing poison and you can solo any single mob in the game. If you are getting hit while doing Whirl of Blades or Flurry of Blades (and are worried about dying) just Mez after Cheapshot immediately. If the Mez gets resisted throw a quick attack in and immediately Mez again.
Achievements
In addition to the Swashbuckler Combat Abilities, you have access to a number more abilities from the Rogue Tree of the Achievement System. You may acquire these by earning achievement points and spending them on specific abilities.
Other
- Swashbucklers can use poisons and they definitely should as they can significantly add to their dps (at T6 a poison will add about 100 damage per hit)
- Inspired Daring works just as well in normal hitting as it does with special abilities. A good way to use it is to strike your Finesse ability followed by Daring and just normal hit melee the mob. Near the end use your double / triple hits to get some big moves in. By the end of Inspired Daring you should have almost all your CA up and can take down most mobs quite effectively this way.
Key Tips
For those interested in playing this class, here are some tips from my own experience as a Swashy (mostly opinions, but I feel most swashies I have spoken to agree):
- Keep your disarm trap up at max. Explain to your group (especially at low levels) you are able to disarm a trap, and that you need to keep your skills up. As you gain experience in the game, the people you group with will too, and you will be expected to disarm the traps!
- Learn the control your aggro. You will steal hate very easily if you don't take full advantage of all your combat arts. Hit your evade (threat decreaser ability) regularly, especially if you are all out DPS. Don't open too heavy with weak tanks, start off using your debuffs, then once you are confident the tank has all the hate, unleash your big attacks. You have enough ways to control your aggro; if a tank has to rescue a single mob off you you're doing something wrong!
- Learn to be a team player. You can debuff mobs against magic mitigation very well. If you have a wizards, or magic user in your group the overall DPS will go up when you start debuffing the mobs (even if yours goes down a little).
- Remember to transfer your hate to the MT in a group, this will make a huge difference to play in the higher levels.
- Wear chain armour with str, agi, sta (not str, wis, int). If you mainly group, don't worry too much about stamina. Its useful when you are close combat to survive AE's, but you shouldn't have too much problem with an "average" stamina. Agi and str are far more important. Soloers may want to put some effort into sta, but you should have the mob dead before they've really landed any serious hits!
- You can mez! It's amazing how many times I've used my "<< %t >> mezzed for 20 seconds" macro and people have said "You can mez!?". It doesn't last long, but when you are soloing it can be a great way to control any adds, or buying your self some time to let your recast timers reset, or even pop a health potion.
- The int stat will increase the power of your poisons, but the increase is hardly noticeable. Don't feel you need to get up the int for your poison, at the expense of your other stats.
